The present invention relates to a a blow molding machine for making blow-molded hollow bodies of thermoplastic material, having two blow mold halves traveling horizontally and equipped with separate drive units for the transport drive and for the movement sequences of the mold closing and locking device in order to implement an opening and closing of the blow mold halves.
A blow molding machine of the construction involved here is disclosed, for example, from the printed publication DE 34 16 871 C2 (to Mauser). The separate drives of this conventional blow molding machine are of hydraulic configuration for the motive drive as rapid transport (rapid motion) for a quick article withdrawal and for the closing drives (power drives) for the locking and clamping of the blow mold halves. The rodless construction of this blow mold machine, which has been built frequently in the last 15 years, proved very successful. However, when special applications are involved such as, e.g., a production under clean room conditions, the use of hydraulic drives is not good enough.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved mold closing and locking device for a modern blow mold machine to obviate prior art shortcomings and to lock the mold mounting plates and blow mold halves, respectively.